Student Loan Bill Fails in Senate

Senate Republicans and a few Democrats blocked a White House-backed proposal that would have restored 3.4 percent interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans for one more year, the Memphis Daily News reports. Lawmakers are racing the clock to restore lower rates before millions of students return to campus next month to find borrowing terms twice as high as when school let out. Without congressional action in the coming weeks, the increase could mean an extra $2,600 for an average student returning to campus this fall, according to Congress' Joint Economic Committee.